Old family stories are
not only fun, they enrich us and tell us about our ancestors
and their lives back in the old days. If you have an old family
story or biography that you would like to share (almost everyone
has a either a character or a very interesting individual in
their family tree!), please write it in your own words and email
it to Sibyl and it will be placed on this page.

"Nanny Spears
and Grandpa Spears"

by Maudie Bailey Spears

The following is the
history of a family who were early settlers in Van Zandt County.
This story clearly portrays life as it was back then, some happy
times and some tragic times, but always lively and interesting.
The story was submitted by Bill Teal with permission from the
sons and daughters of Maudie Bailey Spears.

Mollie was nineteen and Rufus was ten
years older. He had worked for her father and other farmers near
her home. He now had his own farm. They decided to elope and
get married. She was Mary Elizabeth Montgomery and she was called
Mollie. He was Rufus Spears. They married in Canton, Texas, September
3, 1889. Rufus' family lived in Canton and owned a hotel there.
After spending a few days in Canton, they returned to Jamestown
to Rufus' farm, to live.

When Mollie was born in 1870, she was named
Zula. Her mother died about ten months later and her father gave
her the name her mother bore. Her mother was Mary Elizabeth Wilburn
and Nannie's name was Mary Elizabeth Montgomery -- always called
Mollie, until she married Rufus Spears. Mollie's mother, Mary
Elizabeth Wilburn, was a schoolteacher with a degree from a women's
academy. Mollie's father, Dr. Jim Montgomery had five brothers,
all medical doctors. They came from Mississippi to Red River
County, Texas. One brother was named Sam and one was Roark. (Sam
was Linnie Kate's grandfather) The Wilburns were in Red River
County. Mollie had a sister Agnes, and a brother George. George
married Nora Jordan and Jimmy Montgomery of Mineral Wells is
a son. His brother Seth, his brother George, and sister Estella
died in Mineral Wells, Texas. George was the youngest, given
his father's name after he was accidently shot by a hired hand.
Dr. Jim Montgomery lived in Garden Valley and practiced medicine
in all surrounding vicinities. He traveled on horseback. Sometimes
a call would be twenty-five miles away. He mixed his own medicines
and carried them in saddle bags.

Mollie's father was very sad because she
had eloped. This she regretted because her father was so kind
and she had fond memories of being at home with her father and
sister. Her brother, George, had married and she loved living
with him and Nora, to go to school where he taught. She had a
stepmother, also.

Housekeeping was begun in a small way.
The black bedstead was bought at this time. Every day farm chores
were enjoyed as they worked together feeding chickens, milking
the cow and taking care of the milk in a way to have sweetmilk,
buttermilk, and butter as they needed it to eat. Rufus was busy
working in his crop through harvest and chopping wood to burn
in the kitchen stove and firewood for the winter in the fireplace.
A new house was built. She was proud of the "handy"
porch for wood.

Rufus was a good trainer of horses. He
rode them for pay,sometimes. He enjoyed buying and selling horses,
cows and also land.

Two children were born at Jamestown. The
boy was Iphis. When he was a few months old he crawled into the
kitchen cabinet and found some green coffee and ate it. He survived,
but almost lost his life. Mollie and Rufus had a great scare.
The coffee had been bought green to be parched, then ground in
a hand turned mill. In the green stage it was a deadly poison.

Rufus recovered from a spell of inflammatory
rheumatism, after suffering several weeks. Later he found a farm
near Canton that he traded his farm for and included the household
furniture (no furniture was moved). Mollie regretted leaving
her pretty cupboard, for a larger cupboard. The large cupboard
had tin in the sides, with ventilation made by making a design
with a nail. (this cupboard still exists).

After the move was made, life went on the
same for Mollie and Rufus, except they were not near the old
friends they had known in Jamestown. This farm was sold and another
bought. They lived in a new school district called Cartwright.
There were school age children in the community but they were
attending school somewhere else. A teacher was hired and only
one pupil arrived when school opened. Iphis was old enough to
go to school and attended the whole term (a few months alone
with the teacher).

Mollie's father died Jan. 17, 1892. Her
sister, Agnes, had come to live with Mollie and Rufus. Agnes
died Aug. 28, 1899.

Rufus had accumulated farm tools and farm
animals and was prospering financially. Mollie milked the cows
for their home use of milk.

Rufus cleared more land and burned the
brush that was left from the clearing and wood hauling. One night
Mollie walked with Rufus to attend to a brush pile that was burning.
He pushed the burning sticks together, and she walked ahead of
him to the other side of the burning brush, and there lay a man.
She ran back to Rufus -- terrified. Rufus hurried to see, and
the man awoke. He was a traveler -- by walking. He was tired
and cold and meant no harm. Rufus hired him to work. He worked
a few weeks and then disappeared. He went on his way without
a word. But, he was a good worker.

In Dec. 7, 1894, tragedy struck. The little
three year old daughter named Mary Zula became suddenly ill.
It proved to be diphtheria, called "membranous croup".
She died in a few hours. The funeral was not held at once because
the baby girl named, Laveta, three months old, was also suffering
with the same disease. On Dec. 10, 1894, the two little sisters
were buried in the same grave. Devastated in sorrow and still
more to come, they were grateful for the son, Iphis. A baby daughter
was born a year later and was never able to digest her food.
She died three months later from a deadly form of malnutrition,
according to the doctors. Nov. 30, 1896, a son was born. They
called him M.J., and he was always called by the initial name.
When he was in the army he gave the name Marion James. Now, Iphis
had a little brother. They were living east of Canton, near Saline
Creek -- a few miles west of Oakland. Grand Saline became their
home about 1903.

Rufus and Mollie both had a great yearning
to make a good crop each year and accumulate more worldly belongings.
They wanted to go west. Plans were made to move to Erath county
where Rufus had been. He always kept good horses and now he sold
his land and bought two new wagons and he had two good teams
of horses. They were loading the wagons to move to Erath Co.

A man from Grand Saline came to Rufus and
offered him a good job as a salesman for a hardware store in
Grand Saline. He bought a house and several lots in west Grand
Saline, Rhodesburg, called Poletown. Mollie was disappointed
to not go west to farm. Rufus worked for that company awhile
and then he was hired to work for Salt City Company. He worked
with Mr. Bill Staton, buying cotton and selling buggies, cookstoves,
dishes, and was successful financially. He began buying lots
in Rhodesburgh, sometimes with cash, other times it would be
a trade of a calf for a lot or farm equipment for a lot. Rufus'
father came to live with him and Mollie soon after they moved
to Rhodesburgh. Mollie's father had died in 1892 and in 1895,
her brother George was killed. He was on a cattle drive, driving
his cattle to market from Smith county to Fort Worth. The herd
was bedded down in camp in what is now Creagleville community,
near Grand Saline. George gave his gun to the "cook",
to clean the gun. In the process of cleaning, a bullet was fired
and it killed George. He lived four days. Mollie and Rufus helped
George's family to find a way to survive on George's farm and
to find help for them.

Rufus continued his work selling buggies,
harness, cook stoves and wash tubs for salt city. He bought a
farm and traded it for another, getting goats, or geese or maybe
a mule team for "boot". he would sell the mule or geese
or goat for money or trade for another lot in Rhodesburgh. Some
of the acreage he kept. He surprised Mollie when he told her
he had bought the "Kuykendall house." This was a two
story eleven room house built by Rev. Kuykendall for a home for
Prof. Collins. It was to be used for a boarding house for students
who attended the college there in Rhodesburgh where Prof. Collins
was president. Sickness and death had caused the college to be
closed and the Collins' family moved to Dallas. The house was
white with green trim. The porches and halls, both upstairs and
downstairs, were surrounded by bannisters. There was a brick
chimney at the north and the same at the south end of the house.
Rufus added a new chimney on the west end. Mollie was quite elated
and she, with the help of Rufus, "Pa", started to put
up wallpaper inside. This was done for all but two rooms.

In April, 1899, a girl baby was born. She
was called Mollie Donnie. She died Aug. 28, 1904. Essie Vesta
was born April 7,1901 and died Nov. 5, 1901. A daughter called
R.B. was born Sept. 15, 1902. She lived to be eighteen. She died
July 24, 1920.

Iphis had married Alice Fulton in 1912
and their children were Alvin and Coy. A horse threw Iphis off
and broke his neck in 1919, leaving a wife and two boys.. In
Dec. 1923 Alice died. Coy drowned about 1932. Alvin died of polio
about 1936.

Rufus had been working for a monument co.
selling monuments. Because of his health he often walked carrying
his pack. He had an injury in his stomach that caused him pain
to jolt in his buggy. The injury was caused when he was young
and it never healed. He died of cancer in 1921.

Mollie and M.J. were alone in the big house,
but, Alice and Alvin and Coy lived near by. They enjoyed visiting
each other daily. Molly loved the boys as she did her own. She
remembered when Iphis and Alice married in 1912. Mollie had prepared
a big dinner and invited friends and neighbors to attend on Christmas
day.

Rufus deeded the lots on the east side
of block 9 to Iphis for his home. Later, Rufus deeded the farm
north west of town (about 30 acres) to Iphis. Alice was now renting
the land to others. Rufus had idolized the grandsons, Alvin and
Coy. He built swings and other toys for them. They remembered
him and Mollie enjoyed talking with them about "old daddy".
They called Mollie, "little Nannie".

Mollie was very energetic. Her daily routine
was to get up at 4 a.m., cook meat, biscuits, gravy and coffee
for breakfast, eat breakfast with the family, milk several cows,
take care of the milk to have butter, sweetmilk and buttermilk
to drink. churning was almost a daily chore. Rhodesburgh was
thickly settled then and Mollie sold many dollars worth of milk,
both sweet and buttermilk. She was proud of her regular butter
customers. She had a round butter mold which she packed full
of butter (and a little extra high for good measure). This was
carefully wrapped for the customer to carry. Most of the neighbors
in Rhodesburgh were workers who had jobs and had money to pay
and no place to keep a cow.

Mollie recalled the years she had spent
with Rufus here in Rhodesburgh: the orchard of peaches and pears
in block eleven and the grape vineyard and berry patch which
was harvested by hired labor each year. Rufus had planted them
all and shade trees of sycamore, silver leaf maple and black
locust were planted around the block eight on three sides. She
remembered how he made Alvin and coy happy every day. Once he
made a teeter-tooter. She recalled the many things Rufus had
bought for the house. Dishes were stacked in three cabinets that
he had bought, sometimes a set of dishes, sometimes a set of
bowls or a lovely pitcher.

Rufus had put a tombstone to the back of
the children's graves before he died, except R.B. She died in
1920 and he died in 1921.

In 1919 he bought a house and three lots
in block eight, called Shivers place or later called the Darby
place. To do this he mortgaged the bottom farm. The house and
lots were bought for M.J..

M.J. kept the notes paid on the mortgage
but it was not deeded to him alone. The farm was deeded to Mollie
and M.J., so, he worked the farm raising cotton and corn until
it cost more to raise a bale of cotton than it brought when it
was sold. He changed to cattle grazing the land. The mortgage
was paid off in due time and taxes were paid each year, never
failing.

In 1922 M.J. and Maudie married and instead
of moving into the house bought for them, they lived in the big
house with Mollie. Maudie taught school the first winter. Mollie
still sold milk and butter and did garden work along with house
work. The morning began at 4 a.m.. Breakfast over, M.J. left
for the farm in a wagon, with his lunch. Supper would be ready
at late evening when he returned.

In 1924 and 1925 Mollie had a flower garden
which she hoed and carried water during the summer for the plants.
She had many kinds of summer flowers, several kinds of chrysanthemums.
The water was pumped from a well and carried in buckets to the
house for all uses and to the flower garden.

Maurice was born March 31, 1924. He was
a delight to everyone. Mollie enjoyed him and would stop work
to play with him. Maurine was born Dec. 25, 1925 and she too
was a pleasure for Mollie. She bought nice clothes for each of
them. Max was born April 3,1928. Mollie was delighted with him.
He was also a beautiful baby and he loved her also. She bought
things for all of them. Marnell and Marlin were born Feb. 23,
1932. Mollie was a great help with them. She made it possible
for each one to have needed care -- Marnell with her big blue
eyes and little fine voice when she cried and Marlin, so fat
and loving and happy. Mary Ella was born Jan. 8, 1935 and Mollie
was very fond of her. She was very insistent that we name her
for her two grandmothers, Mary for her (Molly) and Ella for grandmother
Bailey.

In 1953, Mollie's health began to deteriorate
and she became bedfast in 1959, and lived at home with M.J. and
Maudie until her death, Oct. 19, 1961.

She could never get an old age pension
because she owned too much land. This was a disappointment to
her because she had always paid taxes and she refused to deed
her part of the land to M.J.. She felt a security in the ownership,
which was never realized.

Mollie and the whole family mourned for
M.J. while he was a soldier in camp during world war I. He came
home in Jan. 1919, soon after the war ended. He had reached Jacksonville,
Florida on the way overseas.

Maudie was teaching school at Creagleville
and boarding with Mrs. Luce in Rhodesburgh. M.J. and his father
and brother were walking past Mrs. Luce's house. The Luce family
went out to welcome home the young soldier. Maudie went out with
them and met M.J. for the first time. A few days later in the
week, Maggie Luce and Maudie walked across the railroad and up
the hill to Mr. Richardson's house to attend prayer meeting one
night. When they came out to go home, M.J. was there and invited
them to ride in his buggy back home, which they did. M.J. did
the driving and Maggie sat in Maudie's lap. Prince was the big
horse's name and Prince became frightened when a train came down
the railroad just as they were nearing the crossing. He soon
calmed down.

Soon, someone invited M.J. to a party near
by and he came and asked Maudie to accompany him to the party.
They continued to date until March. School was out and Maudie
went home, which was nine miles out in the country. This was
farther away, so his calls were less frequent. But, sometimes
he would come on Sunday afternoon.

Maudie did not try to get a school for
the next year, she wanted to go to school again. She was offered
a school in Jan. at Silver Lake and she taught there till June.
That was still farther away, so, Maudie and M.J. did not see
each other often. They had planned to get married some time but
she was trying to become a better teacher. She felt that she
must go to school.

Maudie went to Denton in June 1920, and
made the grade for a six year certificate. She taught school
at Wisdom Temple the next winter and back to Denton in the summer
of 1921, to take other subjects. She taught again at Wisdom Temple
that winter.

M.J. said it was not fair for him to make
the long trips all the time when she could get a school nearer
Grand Saline. She applied and got a contract with the new consolidated
school called Fruitvale, consisting of the consolidating of Fruitvale,
Lawrence Springs and Cross Roads.

Maudie and M.J. married sept. 16, 1922.
School began in October. Maudie's concern now was transportation.
M.J. had a neat little buggy horse which she drove for awhile.
He traded this horse for another which was not safe to drive,
but she drove him a few times. Then he traded for some mules
which she drove for awhile. Old Midnight made the trip several
times. Midnight was the name of Nannie's horse which had been
Rufus' buggy horse. When school was out in March, Maudie said,
"no more teaching for me." It was impossible to combine
teachers' work and responsibilities with homework and M.J.'s
plans, so, the home won out. She never regretted.

The house was eleven rooms, open hall upstairs
and downstairs, three chimneys, no electricity, no running water
and no plumbing, which was not uncommon at that date, 1922. There
were good neighbors near by, Mr. and Mrs. Fite, Mr. and Mrs.
Starkey and family, Mr. and Mrs. Moody and family, Mr. and Mrs.
Oliver Cofer and family, Jewel and Short Hawkins and Evalyn,
Mr. and Mrs. Pinkerton, Mr. and Mrs. John Luce. Cofer, Pinkerton,
Luce, Starkey and Moody were mail carriers out of Grand Saline.